February 2022
Some of the ports on our cruise itinerary had paused cruise ship visitors before our cruise, so we were not 100% sure if any of our port stops would be changed. Locations were starting to reopen right when we left on our cruise, and Carnival Magic ended up stopping at all the original ports.
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| St. Maarten from Carnival Magic spa cabin 12038 |
St. Maarten 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
We love this island! The people are great, and the beach within walking distance is beautiful. You can take a water taxi ride to the beach area for $7 roundtrip, if you prefer. We wanted to walk through the shops first, so we did that, and then continued out of the cruise terminal, then down the sidewalk to the beach, which is an easy walk of about 1 mile, one-way.
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Beach in St. Maarten in front of Kalua Bar & Restaurant |
We rented our chairs from a friendly guy with chairs in front of Kalua Beach Bar & Restaurant. We paid $15 for 2 chairs, and an umbrella right by the water. You could also rent chairs that came with rum punch (I do not know if it was unlimited, as we did not purchase that). The beach and water in this area is beautiful! When you walk farther down the beach, toward the shopping pier and downtown shops, the sand becomes more like the beach near the cruise port in Grand Turk with crushed shells. It is still a nice beach; the sand is just not as soft as it was where we were seated. You can enlarge any photo in this post by clicking on it.
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Above: some of the crushed shells on the beach near the west end Below: looking east from in front of our seat in front of Kalua |
With the chairs we rented, we were also allowed to use the bathroom in the bar, and the wifi code. The wifi signal was not strong enough to use by the water. There are benches along the sidewalk by the bar, so we used it there before we left for the day. A bucket of 5 beers with ice from Kalua cost $12, and the guys renting chairs were eager to please.
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| View while on our walk back to the cruise port in St. Maarten |
We stopped at Amsterdam Cheese & Liquor Store on our way back to the ship for complimentary tastings. This store is just outside the cruise terminal, so it is not far to carry purchases back. There is a public restroom outside at this location. Everyone on this island is extremely friendly, and the prices are fair. Payment was not expected to use any of the restrooms. When we politely declined sales by people on the beach and when leaving the cruise terminal, we were not resolicited.
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| Two of the ships docked in St. Kitts February 2022 |
St. Kitts 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM
St. Kitts had just reopened for visitors when we stopped here. It was very busy with three ships in port. The two ships in the photo above were docked directly out from the port entrance. Carnival Magic was docked on the outer pier over to the right (northwest) from this view.
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| St Kitts map and Palms Court Gardens |
We enjoyed our visit to Palms Court Gardens in 2012, and initially thought we would visit again this trip. We changed our minds at the last minute, when we had not received a response from them, and the cost was higher than before. When you make a reservation online for a day pass, it says to contact them again, if you do not receive a reply in 48 hours. So, I submitted another request when I had not received a reply a week later. After another two days with no response, I contacted them by email. After this, I received a reply confirming our reservations. When we visited in 2012, the cost was $10 per person. When I initiated this reservation request, the rate was $12. About a week after our reservations had been confirmed via email, I noticed the daily rate on their website had been raised to $15. The $15 entrance fee includes a garden visit and lounge chair; it is $3 more for a towel. The cost to visit the gardens only is $2 each. Since we are not the type of people who lounge around in the sun all day, I decided I wanted to confirm our entrance fee, as we thought $15 - $18 per person would not be worth it to us. Palms Court Garden never answered the email I sent asking to confirm our rate, so the day before we left on the cruise, I sent another email stating to cancel our reservation.
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Independence Square in St. Kitts |
We ended up just doing some shopping and walking around town at this port: the port shops, Pelican Plaza, Independence Square, and Berkeley Memorial. It was a hot day crowded with many people from three cruise ships, and we did not stay on shore long. The liquor prices on this island were great.
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San Juan from Carnival Magic serenity deck |
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San Juan 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM
I won a shore excursion while attending the shore excursion presentation I mentioned in my Carnival Magic cruise post: Snorkeling Adventure at Escambron Marine Park! I am not crazy about snorkeling, so my husband and our son went, while I stayed on board. It is a good thing we did not pay for this excursion, as it was not worth $79.99 according to the attendees. The rating for this excursion is 1.5 (out of 5) on Carnival's site. After a bus ride to the park, attendees were given equipment and then they snorkeled from shore with a guide. My husband and our son saw a few fish and turtles; however, that was the extent of the excursion. The description for this excursion also says: After snorkeling, participate in an exciting walk through the park to the historic Escambrón Battery, a fort built in 1771. They did not get to see the fort, and were told this is no longer part of this excursion. At the time of this post, it has been almost a month since our cruise, and the fort description is still on the website.
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| Grand Turk from Carnival Magic spa balcony cabin 12038 |
Grand Turk 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
There are beach loungers on shore in Grand Turk for no charge on both sides of the pier. The beach on the right/south side is new since our last visit to Grand Turk. The water and beach is nice by the pier; however, if you have read any of my other posts about this port, you know this is not one of our favorites because of the people. We decided to book an excursion for the first time ever at this port: Junkanoo Party Bus, Rum Mixology & Beach.
I have good things and bad things to say about this excursion. Governor's Beach is amazing! This is the last stop before heading back to the cruise ship. The sand is much softer than the [partially] crushed shell beach at the port. Getting the included chair and umbrella was a free for all, however. This did not work out well for us because there were three of us, and ALL of the chairs were set up in groups of two with one umbrella. We would have taken two groups of chairs next to each other, except there were not two open groups next to each other when we got to the beach. We were not the first ones off the bus, and we were not the last ones to arrive at the beach either.
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| Grand Turk Lighthouse tour stop Two large stingrays in photo above |
The second great part of this excursion was the stop at the lighthouse on the northern tip of the island. This was my favorite stop on this tour. The view was amazing, and I saw two large stingrays in the water down below. Everyone got to taste three different rums at this stop.
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| Our bus for Junkanoo Party Bus, Rum Mixology & Beach excursion |
The bus ride was scenic and informative, although the bus was not completely open-air, like the one shown in the excursion photo. The windows on our bus could only be opened half way.
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| Flamingos in Grand Turk Salt Salinas from Junkanoo Party Bus, Rum Mixology & Beach excursion |
Other unsatisfactory parts of this tour: We left over 10 minutes late for no apparent reason. We were charged $67.99 for this excursion when we purchased it during our cruise, and it is listed for $64.99 online. The cost for 1 local beer at the beach was $5 and it was self-serve (remember, you could get 5 for $12 in St. Maarten). We each received two small plastic cups of rum punch during the bus ride. Since mixology means: the skill of mixing various drinks and ingredients to create cocktails, I feel like the "mixology" description for this excursion should be changed to "rum punch."
My feelings remain unchanged about the people in Grand Turk. We have been to this island four times, and still feel like they just want to take advantage of visitors. Since we were charged more than usual for our excursion, I felt like Carnival was taking advantage of us, too. We have never paid more for an excursion when booking it on board, rather than pre-cruise. I did not mention the price difference when we booked the excursion, because I was not 100% certain of the price difference.
You can click on the labels or links in this post to find more information from our previous visits to these ports. Let me know if you have any questions!
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